Stephanie Sinclair

Cortlandt Manor, New York, United States

Stephanie Sinclair is known for gaining unique access to the most sensitive gender and human rights issues around the world. Sinclair has documented the defining conflicts of the past decade with a fearless persistence. Her widely published images of the occupation of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan refute characterizations of violence in anything but human terms. Although she has covered the dramatic events of war, many of Sinclair’s most arresting works confront the everyday brutality faced by young girls around the world. Her studies of domestic life in developing countries and the United States bring into sharp relief the physical and emotional tolls that entrenched social conventions can take on those most vulnerable to abuse. Sinclair’s images mark an exchange of trust and compassion. But by consenting to be photographed at their most vulnerable, the people depicted in these images also demonstrate a rare bravery.
Sinclair’s series Too Young to Wed is a decade-long project that has earned global recognition, including the three World Press Photo awards and prestigious exhibitions at the United Nations (2014, 2012) and the Whitney Biennial (2010) in New York. She’s also earned the 2008 CARE International Award for Humanitarian Reportage and The Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award (2009) for her essay A Cutting Tradition: Inside An Indonesian Female Circumcision Celebration. Other honors include three Visa D’Or Feature awards and another World Press Photo award for her coverage of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and a Pulitzer Prize (2000).